Recently, connecting two or more entities in a network could imply a lot of configuration to ensure a functioning communication. To solve this problem methods to seamlessly create automatic configuration was created an example of these methods is plug and play but other solutions also exists. Plug and play started to gain momentum with Universal Serial Bus or Port (USB) on personal computers and have evolved into many applications during the last years. Nowadays more advanced standards exists that can be used for almost any type of devices; an example of such a protocol is Universal Plug and Play (uPnP).
Plug and play removes much of the configuration when installing or replacing devices. In cases where a device, for example a video player, is installed or removed the devices in the connection exchange their functionality with each other. With plug and play functionality there is no or limited need to manually specify what type of equipment that is installed or removed.
Plug and play has made installation and maintenance of communicating devices much easier. However it has not affected the user experience in the same way nor dramatically changed how the user interacts with the devices. While the technology for the communication between equipment, such as video players, has been widely developed, the methods to enable a dynamic user interface has been lacking. In particular user interfaces that adapts to the surrounding context in terms of functions that has not previously been specified and enable the statuses to be shown in real time has been lacking.
Today, most devices with a user interface for sending and receiving commands, hereafter referred to as transmitters, have their own type of user interface and methods for interaction. This requires the user to learn multiple interfaces in order to utilize different transmitters and their functions. As a function of the differences between transmitters interfaces, the interchange of information with transmitters has been limited to special predefined set of functions.
Document WO06029391 discloses a master controller which the user interface is connected to.
Document WO27075816 discloses a system that requires compilation before enabling the new functions.
Document US2009313566 discloses how a menu structure can be collected from a remote location.